Hike #929; Riegelsville to Phillipsburg

Hike #929; Riegelsville to Phillipsburg

4/7/16 Riegelsville to Phillipsburg with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Jason W. Briggs, Annika Krystyna, James Quinn, Slasher (Zain Abass), and Dan Asnis

The next hike would be a night hike between Rieglesville and Phillipsburg. I’d done variations of this hike countless times, but this time I had an idea to add some stuff I’d never done before that would make it more spectacular.
There was a preserve, the Mariton Sanctuary, which I had only driven to the parking lot of. It’s amazing that within a half an hour from my home that there is a preserve I simply have never walked. It just goes to show how much there really is out there.

Bel Del Bridge

I met the group at Union Square, Phillipsburg, and got ready to shuttle to the start. The day before the hike was National Walking Day, but this was National Beer Day. What a happy coincidence. Before leaving, Slasher and I went to Free Bridge Wine and Spirits and got some Weyerbacher. I got the delicious Blithering Idiot, and he got the Insanity, which is Blithering Idiot aged for a year in Oak barrels. Delicious stuff. We then shuttled to Rieglesville to start off.
From the parking area on the NJ side of the free bridge, I first brought everyone down the former Belvidere Delaware Railroad to where it crosses over the Musconetcong river. It’ s a really pretty spot, and worth going and doing an out and back to. James was running late, and this also helped to buy him some time to catch us.

Delaware Canal in Rieglesville

We headed over to the old Roebling Rieglesville Bridge and walked across. This is the route of the Highlands Trail across the Delaware River. On the other side, keeping straight leads to it’s foot bridge over the Delaware Canal. We followed this, but then got on the roads on the other side and walked out through town. We turned right along Rt 611 north for a bit, past some historic houses.
Some lady randomly called me over to talk to her on her porch. She wanted to know what we were doing. I explained that we were hiking, and she tried to put her drink down to join us immediately. I told her we were going to Easton, and not the direct way, and she just wasn’t getting it. I finally had her convinced not to join us this time, but she could join maybe another time. She certainly had too much to drink and probably won’t remember even meeting me.

Bucks/Northampton marker

James met up with us a short bit up the street, and he parked on a side street to the west of 611. We all continued up the road from there, out of town and past an old historic farmstead.
We continued walking the road to Spring Hill Road and started heading to the left, gradually up hill. The road was lightly used and very pleasant. There were good views off to the left of the surrounding farmland as well as back toward the Delaware River and into NJ. We continued on this road to a right turn on Sunnyside Road. This road led more steeply past an intersection with County Line Road East. At about this time, there was a concrete monument denoting the county line on it beside the road. We continued up hill.
There were people out working outside their houses at a couple of spots, and we said hello. In a way they kind of seemed annoyed that anyone was walking through there. When we got to the crest of Bougher Hill, we found the Mariton Sanctuary. I’d been waiting some time to explore this one.
We went up the driveway, which just had the appearance of a house. There was a visitor center that was closed, but we hung out behind the building shortly. There was a nice restroom there that we could use, and we took a short break.
Once we were all ready to go, we headed directly behind the building into the woods on what was called the Main Trail. This was pretty much just a woods road, with a gently ascent along the way. We followed this for a bit, and we passed one guy walking out, which accounted for the single car that was in the parking lot when we got there. We could pretty much assume we now had the preserve to ourselves.
The River Overlook Trail broke off to the right, which I was originally planning to take, but it was a ways down hill, then we’d have to walk all the way back up. I chose to skip that one this time and continue straight ahead. There are a ton of trails that will merit a return visit to this park to finish covering them.
We continued to the Chimney Rock Trail and then followed it straight. This was another dead end trail, but I figured we’d check this one out this time.

Delaware view on Chimney Rock Trail

I was quite glad we had followed this trail. It went down hill, and got slightly steep at one point, but then leveled off. The Chimney Rock referred to itself was just some rock jutting out, barely really an outstanding geological feature, but still different than some of the rest of the preserve. The view of the river was the true highlight of it all. Annika didn’t come all the way down, and waited above a bit. We continued from here back up the Chimney Rock Trail and turned right up onto the Fox Trail. This split to north and south branches, and we took the south one to the left, to the Kit Trail I think, which was another left,

Squeeze Trail

We followed that to Main Trail again, turned right, and followed that one to Squeeze Trail, with a funny routed sign reading it’s name. We turned left on Squeeze Trail and began descending a bit.
There were some old stone walls and possibly the remnant of an old barn we saw while wandering through.
I looked through the map and sipped my delicious drink, and we had a really nice view to the south, over farmlands and through trees. We continued on Squeeze Trail to Turnpike Trail where we turned to the right. That trail was just an old woods road with large stone walls lining either side. I’m not sure if it were ever intended to be a through public road.

Turnpike

We continued along the Old Turnpike as it took us gradually up hill. The trail passed through some open fields and surprisingly close to a house on the left, then continued back through woods to what the maps call “The Pine Circle” and Stouts Valley Overlook. The overlook was a seasonal one and nothing to get too excited over, but still nice. A big drop. We continued from here out to the other end of the Fox Trail north section, and descended for a little bit.
My plan was to descend off trail down to Bougher Hill Road on the preserve land. We found where the trail joined a woods road that went to the west, and we started following that. However, we made a wrong turn and were not descending toward Bougher Hill. We ended up on Coffeetown Road. This was closer to where we wanted to go, but certainly NOT the way I was planning to go. The woods road spat us out onto the back yard of some house, so we quickly just wandered on down to the road, then turned right without hanging around for long.

We walked down Coffeetown Road through Stouts Valley, a little community of early 19th century homes including a beautiful old mill and homestead. We turned left at these, over Fry’s Run, on Kressman Road. I was struck by how beautifully the historic structures were renovated. The old mill was now either another home or storage for the original homestead, very well kept. It was nice to see structures like this saved rather than like the new ones, tear them down and build some piece of garbage. We headed up hill on Kressman to Ridge Road where we turned right. This was a newer development and really didn’t look like it belonged anywhere near the historic buildings. Another farm at the top was historic but still used.

Stout's Valley

We took Ridge Road to Royal Manor Road and turned left through the new development. We continued on this road for a while as the sun began to sink behind the trees.
We made a ninety degree turn with the road, and then ahead was the old Raubsville Cemetery. I intentionally picked out this route to check the thing out. I had descendants from around the area, but just to the north that I know of, so I figured we could have a look around. I didn’t see any familiar names, and we made our way to the back of the cemetery. I checked the aerial images and figured we should see if there were any other older graves near the far part. There were no signs saying to keep out so I figured it was all cemetery, and that we might actually be able to just walk down the hill to Raubsville off trail, then get on the canal towpath.

Cemetery in Raubsville

Dan was talking very loud as we reached the back of the lot, and a guy at the house next to us heard him and came out to holler at us. Apparently we were trespassing, even though there were no signs.
The guy was actually quite nice, and I told him that we were just looking around, not looking to cause problems. We ended up having a very nice conversation about how his wife was descended from the original settlers, and that she had a deed associated with William Penn patent. He didn’t know of anyone from my family being in that area, but I’m also not aware of all of the maternal names in the family tree either. It wouldn’t surprise me to find some.
We headed back out through the cemetery to Royal Manor Road, headed down into Raubsville, and then turned right on Mill Street. This took us down hill and past a vacant former building site, and directly across Rt 611 from that was a footbridge over to the Delaware Canal. We crossed and got on the towpath to head north.
The walk on the canal was nice and relaxing. We moved quickly and without any issues. We didn’t see anyone and no one saw us. It was just about totally dark by the time we got to the canal and it just got darker.
We paused on our northbound trek beneath the Interstate 78 bridge because it looked so cool with the dim light around. We then continued up to the forks of the Delaware and the Lehigh, where the Delaware Canal ended and Lehigh Canal begins. We remained on the towpath trail just for a bit before coming out to Rt 611 again in order to cross the Lehigh.

Mmmm fooood

We crossed on the road bridge, then went over to the mini mart across the street for food and drinks. I got a chocolate milk and I think a tea. From there it was just a simple walk along the waterfront and to the Northampton Street Free Bridge to get back to Phillipsburg where the cars were waiting for us close by at the boat launch area.
It was such a very nice night to be out, and an overall feel good experience. I never tire of visiting the old favorite places, and we again visited more that I was completely unfamiliar with. We’re now also set up for more night hikes to complete the Mariton area trails and to explore beyond.